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Mussolini's Mentalite and Italian Foreign Policy, 1936-1939

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Mussolini's Mentalite and Italian Foreign Policy, 1936-1939 In Dubious Battle IN DUBIOUS BATTLE: MUSSOLINI'S MENTALITE AND ITALIAN FOREIGN POLICY, 1936-1939 By G. BRUCE STRANG, B.A. (HONS.), M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School ofGraduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the Degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy McMaster University © Copyright by G. Bruce Strang, 2000 DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY McMaster University (History) Hamilton, ON TITLE: In Dubious Battle: Mussolini's Mentalite and Italian Foreign Policy, 1936-1939 AUTHOR: G. Bruce Strang, B.A. Honours (Winnipeg), M.A. (McMaster) SUPERVISOR: Professor Emeritus Alan Cassels NUMBER OF PAGES: xi, 332 11 Abstract This thesis uses newly available archival material from the Arehivio Storieo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, especially Ciano's Gabinetto, the Foreign Ministry office under which Mussolini and Ciano successively centralized and tightened Fascist control of foreign policy, as well as the Serie Affari PolWei, copies oftelegrams from embassies abroad plus the diplomatic traffic sent from the Gabinetto to various embassies. This research represents the most comprehensive archival study to date. It also adds a substantially new interpretive cast to the historical debate. It considers but rejects the writings of recent revisionist Italian historians, especially the late Renzo De Felice and several of his students. Their work inaccurately presents a picture of Italy balanced between England and Germany, hoping to play the role of the 'decisive weight' in European affairs. This study argues instead that Benito Mussolini was the primary animator of Italian foreign policy during the 1930s. He was a programmatic thinker, whose ultra­ nationalist mentalite included contempt for democracies, Bolshevism in Western Europe, and for the international Masonic order. More seriously, he held profoundly racist, militarist and social Darwinist beliefs, and routinely acted on these impulses. This complex of irrational beliefs led Mussolini to align Italy with Germany to expand the Italian Empire in East and North Africa at the expense ofBritain and France. From June 1936 to early February 1939, Mussolini clearly tightened Italian ties with Germany. These links allowed the Duce to challenge the Western democracies on a 111 IV broad number ofissues. Although Mussolini hoped to achieve many concessions through a process of alternate intimidation and conciliation, he ultimately knew that he could realize his main territorial goals only through war with France and Britain. Only an alliance with Hitler's Germany offered Mussolini the chance to achieve his grandiose imperial plans, though at the profound risk ofdomination by Germany and military defeat against Britain. Acknowledgements Although this thesis is in many ways an individual accomplishment, I never could have completed it without the advice and support ofmany people. lowe a profound debt ofgratitude to so many, though I can name only a few here. I would like to thank my thesis committee, Dr. Alan Cassels, Dr. Robert H. Johnston, and Dr. Martin Hom. Their thoughtful criticisms made this a better work. I would like to thank Dr. Cassels in particular for agreeing to supervise this thesis well into his retirement. I also have to express my regret that Dr. Tom Willey's tragic death prevented him from seeing the completion ofthis thesis. I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Graduate Scholarships Committee, and McMaster University for funding support, and especially the family of Richard 1. Fuller, whose generous bequest to the History Department made my archival research possible. I thank the members ofMelrose United Church Choir for their support and even their nagging over the years, as well as Rob Hanks and Dr. John Schindler for the many discussions that we have had about history and politics, as well as less weighty matters. lowe a profound debt to members of my family: to many aunts, uncles and cousins; to Dr. Lynn Mitchell-Pedersen for showing me that it could be done; to Kent, Shawna, and especially David and Kristel, for their financial and emotional support, as well as their fellowship in Hamilton; to newfound family, Mavis and Bill Whitworth and Margi and Brian Hennen; to Alex Cruickshank; to my grandmothers Eva Mitchell and the v Vi late Agnes Strang, who instilled in their children the value of education; and to George and Joyce Strang, without whom I could not have made it this far. My profound regret is that I took so long to finish that my father did not live to see this work defended. I have saved three people for the last. I thank Dr. Robert 1. Young of the University ofWinnipeg for making my academic career possible. He has continued to be mentor and friend. His graciousness and academic accomplishments inspire me to strive to achieve a higher level in my own work. I am amazed and grateful for the good fortune that Nancy Hennen shares in my life and work. Though we pursue different paths, in our own ways we both aspire to artistry. Finally, I have to express my profound thanks to my mother, Ruth Mitchell, for inspiring me to pursue this goal, for encouraging me to carry on when the path seemed bleak, and, most ofall, for convincing me to keep the courage of my convictions. I could not have done it without her. Preface Historians have sifted through the disastrous decisions of the 1930s that plunged the world into depression and war. Historians, political scientists and philosophers have spilled proverbial rivers of ink trying to explain the causes of the Second World War, surveying an ever wider array of sources and evidence. Why, then, do we need another study that attempts to explain a part ofthe complex, interrelated origins ofthat war? The answer lies in two broad categories. The first, more nebulous one is that successive generations ofhistorians bring new focus to old, albeit unchanged histories. We have the benefit ofassessing past writers' works, subjecting them to critical scrutiny, and, ideally, over time improving our collective understanding of the past. The second, more tangible reason is that historians occasionally achieve greater access to historical documentation. Such is the case with this study on Mussolini and Italian foreign policy. After a long process ofrestoration, the Italian Foreign Ministry Archive has microfilmed the so­ called Carte Lancellotti, a collection of papers that then Foreign Minister Raffaele Guariglia removed in September 1943 from the Foreign Ministry to safeguard from German capture as the new Italian government tried to arrange its exit from the war. These papers from Galeazzo Ciano's Gabinetto, the Foreign Ministry office under which Mussolini and Ciano successively centralized and tightened Fascist control of foreign policy, comprise an important collection of telegrams, notes of interviews with foreign statesmen and diplomats, and personal memoranda. In addition, scholars now have access Vll Vill to the Serie Affari Politici, copies oftelegrams from embassies abroad plus the diplomatic traffic sent from the Gabinetto to various embassies. These archival sources supplemented by published material, particularly Ciano's diaries, which historians and archival evidence have for the most part corroborated, provide the most comprehensive documentation available on Italian policy before the Second World War. This study also adds a substantially new interpretative cast to the historical debate. During the archival research for this project, I became increasingly convinced that Mussolini's policy had a coherent thread and paradoxical consistency amidst his seemingly opportunistic maneuvers and wavering policies. His decisions were not wholly rational; he was no mere opportunist, nor was he entirely inconsistent. In searching for the appropriate methodology to use to explain Italian policy, the evidence compelled me to discard many of the tools of recent international relations history; the now conventional reference to structuralist causation cannot properly explain the decisions of a fundamentally irrational thinker. Accordingly, I have focussed my explanation of Mussolini's policy on an understanding of his mentalite. Mussolini's ultra-nationalist belief system, based on a high degree of racism, militarism and social Darwinism, led him to cast his lot with Nazi Germany in order to expand Italy's power, influence and territory at the expense ofthe Western democracies ofFrance and Great Britain. Given this focus, I have concentrated my detailed discussion of Italian foreign policy on the period from June 1936 to early February 1939. I chose to examine this period because, after the conquest ofEthiopia, Mussolini had the option to re-orient his foreign policy in the light of British and French attempts to restore the Stresa Front IX against Germany. This choice would protect Italy against the growing might ofGermany and the potential German threat to Austrian independence and to Italy's northern frontier. It would also inhibit Mussolini's ability to carry out territorial aggrandizement in Europe or Africa, as British and French statesmen aimed to preserve the status quo. A second option would be to straddle the fence, to play each side against the other, hoping to extract concessions from both in exchange for temporary Italian favour. A third choice was to link Italy to the increasing dynamism ofNazi Germany, setting Italy on a course toward eventual expansion in Africa, the Mediterranean and in the Balkans. This policy would inevitably entail confrontation with Britain and France. In addition, this thesis begins its detailed examination of Mussolini's foreign policy in June 1936 because Mussolini appointed his son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano to the Foreign Ministry, starting the process of 'fascisticizing' Italian diplomacy. Ciano, Mussolini's thoroughly loyal subordinate, was his father-in-Iaw's stalking horse for the implementation of this initiative as well as the rapprochement with Nazi Germany. By February 1939, Mussolini had substantially changed the orientation ofFascist foreign policy, having chosen in January to pursue a tripartite Italo-German-Japanese alliance directed against Great Britain.
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